Free Republic

Texas Gov. Rick Perry, whom some pundits had written off as the GOP's nominee, may find a second coming in Iowa, if new poll data holds up. As Mitt Romney's campaign has suffered a startling decline in recent weeks, only to see Newt Gingrich eclipse the former Massachusetts governor's front-runner status, the battle for the Iowa caucuses set for Jan. 3 has become a wide-open race. New survey data prepared for the Perry campaign and shared by a source close within the campaign shows that the Texas governor may be poised to do much better in next month’s Iowa caucuses...

Rayne Shultz 1922-2011: Canadian war ace shot down three German bombers in one night in 1943 BY ANDREW DUFFY, THE OTTAWA CITIZEN NOVEMBER 20, 2011 2 STORYPHOTOS ( 6 ) More Images » Canadian war ace Rayne ‘Joe’ Schultz shot down three German bombers in one night in 1943 and went on to serve 37 years in the Royal Canadian Air Force, retiring as a Group Captain. He died on Remembrance Day, 2011, at age 88. Flying Officer Rayne “Joe” Schultz began the night that would define his war at a poker game — winning money for a change. It...

A pilot who accidentally locked himself in the bathroom of his LaGuardia-bound plane caused a terror scare last night when a helpful passenger with an accent tried to come to his rescue by banging on the cockpit door. The embarrassing comedy of errors began when the captain of a Chatauqua Airlines flight from Asheville, N.Car., decided to take a bathroom break before landing. But when he tried to get out of the men’s room, the door jammed, trapping him in the tight quarters.

10-19-2011 19:03 Korean Air pilot under investigation for pro-N. Korean activities By Lee Hyo-sik A Korean Air pilot has been under police investigation for allegedly posting dozens of pro-North Korean messages and other material on his website in breach of the country’s National Security Law. The National Police Agency said Wednesday that a 45-year-old captain surnamed Kim started a website (www.scintoy.com) in August 2006 and had posted more than 60 articles and video clips that criticized the South Korean government and instead promoted the North’s propaganda. Some of pro-North Korean material was found to have been produced in the communist...

A source on the Rick Perry campaign tells Hot Air that the Texas governor conducted some Texas-size fundraising in the third quarter. Coming in just a little over halfway through, Perry raised $17.1 million. That number would put Perry somewhere between $4-6 million ahead of Mitt Romney’s rumored total for Q3, according to this report last week from the Boston Globe. It’s also likely to far outpace Herman Cain’s fundraising or that of the other Republicans currently in the race. The pace is even more impressive. Perry had 49 days in which to raise funds, rather than the full 92...

Here is an interview on local Reno Talk Radio with Matt Jackson who is an Unlimited pilot and vice-president of the Unlimited Division. Click on the "listen" button for 9/19 and go to about 10 minutes in to hear the discussion.

CHICAGO (AP) — Myrtle Rose was taking a short flight over suburban Chicago when the 75-year-old aviation enthusiast looked out her cockpit window to see two F-16 fighter jets. She assumed the military pilots were just slowing down to get a closer look at her antique plane. It wasn't until she landed her 1941 Piper J-3 Cub that friends and the police told her the attention was much more serious — for straying into restricted airspace during a visit by President Barack Obama. Rose, who tries to fly every day when weather permits, said she had been itching to get...

MIAMI -- Two brothers were arrested after police said they attacked a pilot at Miami International Airport on Wednesday night. American Airlines Flight 1755 was about to take off from MIA to San Francisco International Airport when a flight attendant noticed that passenger Jonathan Baez, 27, was not wearing his seat belt. She tried to wake him up, but he was unresponsive so she called the pilot. The pilot then decided to turn the plane around and head back to the gate. Once at the gate, the pilot and flight attendant both tried to wake Baez. He finally woke up...

RAF Spitfire pulled from Irish peat bog A Second World War RAF Spitfire has been excavated from an Irish peat bog almost 70 years after it crash-landed. A piece of the Wreckage of the World War Two spitire that crashed into the Bog in County Donegal A piece of the Wreckage of the World War Two spitire that crashed into the Bog in County Donegal 6:00AM BST 29 Jun 2011 Six machine guns and about 1,000 rounds of ammunition were also discovered by archaeologists searching the Inishowen Peninsula in Co Donegal. The British fighter plane was piloted by an American,...

(CNN) -- Southwest Airlines disciplined a pilot whose profanity-laced rant about flight attendants was heard by other airplane crews and controllers, officials said Wednesday. The unidentified pilot bashed flight attendants as a "continuous stream of gays and grannies and grandes," according to a transcript of the March 25 flight over central Texas. The pilot on the Austin to San Diego flight was referring to the sexual orientation, age and attractiveness of flight attendants.

A woman took over the controls of a small airplane when her pilot-husband started having trouble breathing and speaking on a flight from California to Colorado, authorities said. The Federal Aviation Administration released details and audio of the incident Thursday, which happened on a trip from San Bernardino, Calif. to Colorado Springs May 17. Ground controllers in Colorado and a Great Lakes Airlines pilot in another plane helped her guide the smaller craft. The specifics of the man's medical problem weren't available. An air traffic controller in Longmont, Colo., noticed the 70-year-old pilot appeared to have difficulty breathing during a...

pilot gets shot in head..fly's helicopter back to base

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Two Muslim religious leaders say they were removed from a commercial airliner in Memphis on Friday and were told it was because the pilot refused to fly with them aboard.

This is showing up in emails and in forums on the net. I have no idea if it's true. Not on Snopes yet.-------------------------------------"I'm currently still in one piece, writing from my room in the Narita crew hotel. It's 8am. This is my inaugural trans-pacific trip as a brand new, recently checked out, international 767 Captain and it has been interesting, to say the least, so far. I've crossed the Atlantic three times so far so the ocean crossing procedures were familiar. By the way, stunning scenery flying over the Aleutian Islands. Everything was going fine until 100 miles out from...

(CNN) -- Time was running out, and Mark Dickinson wasn't sure whether he'd get to see his dying 2-year-old grandson one last time. A long line at Los Angeles International Airport's security checkpoint had kept him from getting to his gate on time. His grandson Caden would be taken off life support in a matter of hours in Denver, Colorado, with or without his grandfather's presence, according to CNN affiliate KABC. "I was kind of panicking because I was running late, and I really thought I wasn't going to make the flight," Dickinson told KABC. That's when a pilot from...

The messages appear when the sky is clear: Trust Jesus. God Forgives. U + God = :) With the heavens as their pulpit, pilots Jerry Stevens and Keith Poeschl deliver their sermon from a bright-yellow crop duster dubbed ``Holy Smoke.'' ``These are God's love letters to his children,'' explains Stevens, 68, a retired aviator who started the sky writing mission 12 years ago when living in Boca Raton. Since then, Stevens has taken Poeschl, 33, under his wing, teaching the novice pilot the art of skywriting. There are now two versions of the Holy Smoke -- one stationed in Fort...

The California airline pilot punished by the Transportation Security Administration for posting videos critical of airport security has revealed his identity. Chris Liu, who calls himself the "Patriot Pilot," says he was just trying to improve airport security when he released a recorded and posted online footage of San Francisco International Airport in which he criticized a number of procedures. Liu had been part of a federal security program allowing him to carry a gun in the cockpit. But after he posted the video, federal agents showed up at his house Dec. 2 to confiscate his weapon and suspend his...

stewart_maximus writes "The TSA is investigating a TSA deputized pilot who posted videos to YouTube pointing out security flaws. Flaws exposed include ground crew clearing security with just a card swipe while pilots have to go through metal detectors, and a 'medieval-looking rescue ax' being available on the flight deck. Three days after posting the video, 6 government officials arrived at his door to question him and confiscated his federal firearm (and his concealed weapon permit)."

The airline pilot who was reprimanded by the TSA for posting videos showing security flaws at a major airport is speaking out exclusively for the first time, saying that it was the "fallacy of the system" that inspired him to take this action. *snip* He first posted the videos to YouTube on November 28. Three days later, he says, four federal air marshals and two local sheriff's deputies showed up at his home to question him about the footage. The pilot filmed the conversation, during which the federal marshals confiscated his federally-issued firearm. (News video runs when you click the...

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Evidence found at the remote, rugged Alaska site where an F-22 Raptor crashed indicates the pilot died, an Air Force official said Friday evening. Part of the jet's ejection seat was found at the site, which means Capt. Jeffrey Haney of Clarklake, Mich., could not have survived the Tuesday night crash, Col. Jack McMullen said. Also found were pieces of the flight suit Haney had been wearing. (excerpt)